24 hours without Landaluce.

I’m worried about Jose Ignacio Landaluce. It’s been over a day since we last heard from him and I fear something bad has happened. Is he OK? Has something gone wrong? A Spanish journo friend offered some words of comfort. “Don’t worry,” she told me. “He sent two press releases out on Thursday. That’s good for two days.”

Mr Landaluce, you see, is prolific. The national MP for the Popular Party in Cadiz, he lives up to the best traditions of the British rent-a-quote politician, particularly when it comes to Gib. Lately, it’s been a non-stop flow of vitriolic, anti-Gib commentary from him. If it’s not bunkering it’s tax, or submarines, or sovereignty, or those troublesome waters around the Rock.

I often ask myself what it is that drives Mr Landaluce. Is it a case of over-zealous nationalism? Does he really believe what he says? Or is he simply stirring the muck to score points against the ruling PSOE party? Who knows? Frankly, who cares?

If his recent contributions are anything to go by, he needs his researchers to be a bit more meticulus in garnering the facts.

Take his complaints over the recent incursion by the Spanish Navy into British Gibraltar waters. Mr Landaluce was quick to criticise Madrid for allowing its ship to be booted out by the Royal Navy (which is not, quite, what happened, but still…). If he was being really sincere, he would have been congratulating the Spanish government for sending the navy ship into Gib waters in the first place. As they say in Spain, ‘mental straws’.

When it comes to interpreting facts, this chap really is Mr Landaloose…

But here’s the rub. There are some people in Gib who think the media here shouldn’t give this Spanish MP column inches or air time. They accuse him of deliberately wanting to rock the boat of improved cross-border relations. But the bottom line is, Mr Landaluce is an elected parliamentarian for the main Spanish opposition, a party that was in government just five years ago.

Like it or not we need to know what he is thinking, even if we disagree…

Online noise.

I wrote another story this week about child porn laws in Gibraltar – or rather, the lack of them. I was speaking to a guy who was so angry when he read our coverage in the Chronicle that he set up a protest group on Facebook to raise awareness and pile pressure on legislators to get moving on this. The first few members sent it on to their friends, who sent it on to their’s too. Within just a few days, several hundred people had signed up in support. The figure is now closer to 700.

I think this is a good cause, which is partly why I looked at this story in a bit more detail. But I was also intrigued by the way everyday people were getting together online and using the internet to express their feelings and thoughts on important – and sometimes not so important – issues. Some people on the child porn group were aggresive and jingoistic. But others were sharing some very serious thoughts, including their own experiences of abuse. It was an eye opener on many levels.

The internet, be it through Facebook or other platforms, is a powerful tool for community change, and one that is fast gaining ground in Gib. Just have a trawl through Facebook. (My personal favourite, purely for the name, has to be ‘Hang the bastards who killed puppy during Castle Road Burglary’, which now has over a thousand members).

The bottom line? If you feel passionately abut an issue, then get online. Tell your friends, spread the word and make some noise, widen the debate on your terms.

The nuisance monkeys.

A growing number of people here have had enough of Gibraltar’s Barbary Macaques. The troublesome monkeys, it appears, are not content to hang out in the Upper Rock Nature Reserve. Instead, they roam into town and make a nuisance of themselves. They are loud, messy, often aggressive pests. For many people, particularly the young and the elderly, they can be intimidating, if not downright scary.

Inevitably perhaps, the finger of blame is often pointed at the ape management team at the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society. Unfairly so, in my view. I’ve spent time with these guys and I know what their work involves.

GONHS, under contract with the Gibraltar Government, provides food for the various monkey packs and cleans their feeding sites. And although the monkey team responds to calls from irate residents – “there’s a pack of monkeys on my terrace, come and sort it out…” – they are not actually contracted to do this. In other words, contrary to popular belief, that’s not their job.

More interesting still, new scientific research has debunked an age-old accusation. GONHS has often been accused of not feeding the monkeys enough. The monkeys are roaming because they are hungry, or so the argument goes. In fact, the reverse is true.

To prove it, Professor Agustin Fuentes, an American anthropologist who specialises in studying the interraction between humans and primates, designed an experiment which he put into play with researchers from GONHS.

For a period of time, they withheld the daily feed provided to one of the monkey packs. This pack had been roaming from the Upper Rock down to the southern end of town, an area of seven hectares. Without their daily feed, the monkeys had no choice but to forage for food in the natural forest. The upshot: They reduced their roaming area to three hectares.

Prof Fuentes made this clear during a chat we had last week. “The more we give them everything on a plate, the more time they have to roam,” he said. It’s not because they are hungry, he insisted. “There are other reasons [why they seek out humans], and that’s what the debate has got to be about.”

So what are those other reasons? Well, for one, our tourism industry often treats these wild animals – yes, they are wild – as circus freaks. A small minority of operators offer the monkeys treats to entice them into performing for the tourists, and that bad influence spreads.

Ironically, this is not necessarily what tourists want. Prof Fuentes again: “What the majority of tourists want is the nature experience. They want to connect with the monkeys, but very few of them actually want to touch them.”

That observation was based on extensive interviews with visiting tourists, carried out over several years. His conclusion? It is time for a major rethink on how we market the monkeys.

Military secrets

So there I was, sitting in a packed room in the Museo del Istmo in La Linea, surrounded by the top military and political brass in the Campo de Gibraltar. The military governor was there, as were the heads of the Policia Nacional and the Guardia Civil. The local rep for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was there too, as was the PSOE MP who heads the ruling party’s foreign affairs committee in parliament. Then there were politicos past and present, and even a Franco-era diplomat known for his tough line on Gib.

We were there for the presentation of a rather unusual book. Written by retired Spanish navy officer Angel Liberal Fernandez, the book is a detailed analysis of modern military activity on the Rock. The author relies on open source material – press cuttings, historical documents, academic research – and explores everything from air and naval facilities, to intelligence gathering operations. The book includes photos and detailed descriptions of military locations. And while it may not use classified information, it relies on years of experience to serve up the sort of deep analysis that only a military veteran could provide.

The presentation was filled with anti-Gib vitriol which I won’t go into in this post. If you’re interested, you can read about it here.

What really intrigued me about this book was the fact that a recently-retired Spanish military man would publish such a detailed account on such a sensitive subject. Yes, the book achieves its main aim, providing the reader with insight into why the UK, and the US, think the Rock is important. But it is also, in effect, a thorough guidebook for anyone who might want select the best targets to cause damage to western assets in Gibraltar.

During the presentation, one speaker spoke about Spain’s anger that a Nato country would continue maintaining a colony on the territory of an ally. Let’s turn that on its head and ask: why would a Nato country publish a guidebook to the military secrets of an ally?

Answers, as always, on a postcard.

The migration tragedy.

The tragedy of human trafficking across the Strait of Gibraltar doesn’t let up.

Despite efforts on both shores of the strait to stem the flow of clandestine migration, the economic imbalance between north and south means they just keep on coming.

Spain has been at the forefront of EU countries working with north African and sub-Saharan ‘partners’ to find ways of discouraging people from making the dangerous trip.

The carrot: Investment and commercial incentives to encourage economic activity. Witness, for example, the radical changes in north Morocco. Once it was the poorest region in the country, now it is evolving into one of its primary economic centres, with a new port, trade and tourism infrastructure.

The stick: Tougher border controls on land and at sea. Tighter monitoring systems that are driving people smugglers further out to sea on ever longer – and more dangerous – journeys.

But they keep on coming. Some in search of a better life. Others to escape poverty and violence. Most, a combination of all the above. 

In Andalucia this year alone, 1275 so far according to the Spanish Red Cross. In the last two days, 211 reached Spain along the Andalusian coastline as far north as Motril.

The numbers, of course, will be a lot higher. Some will have slipped through undetected. Others will have chosen different routes, perhaps by sea to the Canaries, or across the fence into Ceuta or Melilla. Still others will have perished in the attempt.

This week, in Tarifa, my friends in the local media covered yet another of these arrivals. A small boat loaded with African migrants, including six babies among the mass of people on board. They were found adrift in the Atlantic off Tarifa.

But it was a good news story. This time, unlike a similar case a fortnight ago, they were all alive.

Checkout out this blog post by Paco Guerrero, a Spanish photographer who covered this.

Main Street rumours and viral emails.

My boss at the Gibraltar Chronicle, veteran journalist Dominique Searle, compares Main Street in Gibraltar to the Internet. Whenever you’re stuck for a story, he likes to say, just take a walk down Main Street and surf for news.

He’s right, of course. It’s old school reporting. If you work your way through this heaving mass of people at lunchtime and come away with nothing, then you’re doing something wrong. If Main Street is like an open air bazaar, then the most oft-traded commodity is information.

Surfing Main Street is fun. The best tactic is an aimless stroll in search of random encounters. A snippet here, a tidbit there. But if you’re after something in particular, you know where to go. Here is a bar where lawyers gather for coffee, there another one popular with cops, or a haunt where political animals complain about something or other to anyone who will listen.

We’re incurable gossips in Gibraltar, where a good rumour spreads like a bad rash. James Neish, a reporter with GBC, told me recently how he tracked down a chap who, he was reliably informed, had won the euro lottery. It turns out this guy had been playing a joke on a friend little more than an hour earlier. He had, of course, used the magic words: “Entre tu y yo, ok? No se lo digas a nadie vale?” That caveat is guaranteed to ensure any ’secret’ is widely circulated in next to no time at all. In less than 60 minutes, the rumour had reached Neish.

Sifting through the chit-chat is very often frustrating. You quickly learn that some people are more trustworthy than others, more reliable in the gossip and tips they peddle. And you learn that if Main Street is like the Internet, then some people are the human equivalent of viral spam. In their mouths, a secret spreads like oil on water, often distorted and largely innacurate. Main Street chatter must always be checked.

Which brings me to my main point. Last week, an anonymous email was circulated widely in Gibraltar containing serious allegations against two police officers. The email spread, well, as fast as a Main Street rumour. It got coverage in all the main media outlets, one of which printed it in full.

The immediate reaction to the email was predictable: most people appeared to believe the anonymous writer. There was a sense of outrage in the tone of everyone who added their observations before forwarding the email to their entire contacts book. The fervour with which some people did this was scary. Even my son, who is 10, received a copy.

But who knows what really happened in this incident? The police strongly rejected the allegations. Now, the Police Complaints Board is investigating the incident, as it should. (We should have confidence in this independent body, which is staffed by no-nonsense, seasoned people. They will get to the bottom of this.)

What worried me about the email was that no one seemed to question its version of events. They accepted it as truth and sent it on. It may well turn out that the complaint against the officers is upheld. But it may also be dismissed. Having sat through more court sessions than I care to remember, many involving allegations against police officers, I know that the ‘truth’, if there is such a thing, always contains many shades of grey.

On the Internet, as on Main Street, it’s best to exercise a healthy dose of scepticism, and a little caution.

Journalism matters.

A Spanish journalist friend of mine works on a regional daily newspaper and earns 800 euros a month. Yes, that’s eight hundred euros, not a typo. For this pay, he gets to fill, on average, three to four pages of copy a day.

A typical day could start with a press conference where some local councillor pitches positive spin on some investment or other. That could be followed by another press conference, this time with a bolshy opposition politico aggressively critical of the council’s failure to invest in something or other. From there, perhaps, to the courthouse, where some dodgy bloke is getting done for ferrying hundreds of kilos of hash from Morocco.

By lunchtime it’s time to check the email inbox, where a pile of press releases – mostly mundane, no doubt – are waiting to be checked, topped and tailed and moulded into something printable. By late afternoon, as the copy is getting written and laid out on page, another round of emails, this time from people who think journalists start work at 5pm. If he’s lucky, my friend will be out by 9pm. More likely, though, it’ll be 10pm or later before he gets home.

In between all this, he’s trying to follow up an off-diary tip while taking flack from yesterday’s round of dissatisfied punters. Why didn’t my story get in? Why did you put my name in the paper (this from the previous day’s grumpy convict)? Why did you push that angle on my investment pitch? Why are you so biased to the ruling party? etc etc

For 800 euros, let’s not forget…

To cap it all, the newspaper business, in Spain as everywhere else, is in crisis. Advertising is down, which means companies are trimming costs. This, of course, translates into a growing number of journos on the dole. Which, if he survives the axe, means my mate ends up having to fill one more page.

Does the quality of the content suffer? Inevitably. Does the workload mean less time to ask critical questions, to poke around in difficult areas? Yes to that too.

In the current climate, journalists lose the most valuable commodity, the most essential ingredient for good reporting: time. When a journalist is laid off, it means more work for those left behind and less time to do it in.

Ultimately, this creates a serious loss for democratic society, which relies on good journalists to sift through the crap and provide accurate information about issues that affect our daily lives. Without that information, we cannot make informed decisions and effect change. Journalism matters.

Remember that next time you buy your daily paper…

Action on child porn laws…finally

A few days ago I wrote about a glaring gap in Gibraltar’s legislation. Possession of child pornography, it appeared, was not a crime on the Rock. It wasn’t me who said this, but the judge.

This inexplicable void was highlighted by a case currently before the Supreme Court. A man is being prosecuted for distributing child porn, but not for having the images stored on his comuter in the first place.

Good news though. It seems the legislation to remedy this appalling situation is finally drafted. Has been since late last year, in fact.

Time for the legislators to get moving on this…swiftly, methinks.

The problem with fishing in Gib waters…

Yet again, another round of tension at sea.

This time, it seems a Spanish navy fisheries patrol boat – it is, in fact, a small warship – came close to Gib and inspected a Spanish fishing boat. Nothing unusual about that, you might think, except that Spain has no jurisdiction in British waters.

The issue, of course, is that Spain does not recognise the waters around the Rock as being British. But it rarely puts this to the test. People in the know told me that this latest incident is believed to be the first navy intervention of this sort. Normally it’s the Guardia Civil. The presence of a navy vessel takes this whole thing up a notch.

So why now? Well, it could be coincidence of course. Perhaps they happened to be in the area and thought they’d have a look. But it’s unlikely, not least because the Spanish ship is based in Cartagena, which is a long way off.

Another possibility is that, the day before all this occurred, the Gibraltar Government had confirmed it was taking the European Commission to court over a row about Gibraltar’s waters. Perhaps that ruffled Spanish feathers and the warship was despatched as a sign of protest. (No one in Spain has so far said anything about this – apart from the usual PP rent-a-quote politicians, and they don’t count – so in truth we don’t know.)

Gibraltar is launching the legal case because the EC somehow approved a Spanish application to have British waters around Gib designated as a Spanish nature site under EU laws. The EC effectively ignored the fact that Spain hasn’t got a say in this area and that, in any event, the site was already designated by Britain.

So what the hell is going on here? Do the people in Brussels not check? Or did they want the legal uncertainty over the waters resolved once and for all? Why did the Brits not check on this too before the Spanish designation was rubber-stamped? Could it be that the British Brussels desk is not aware of Gib sensitivities? Above all, why on earth did Spain do this at a time of ‘improved relations’? Could it be that they are not really feeling as friendly as they are making out? Or, as is often argued, is this the work of rogue right-wing elements in some government department or other?

Take your pick. Answers on a postcard please.

(And if you’re writing from the beach, do watch out for those jellyfish…)

The sting in Gib’s territorial waters

Anyone following the local press in gibraltar this week might be forgiven for wondering why all the fuss  about Gibraltar’s territorial waters.

Here’s a simple version: Spain says Gibraltar has no territorial waters. Britain, and Gibraltar of course, say otherwise.

The issue has never been resolved because neither Britain nor Spain want it resolved. They have a gentleman’s agreement to skirt around the subject. Why? Who knows.

In practice , for example, it means that when Spain boards a ship leaving Gibraltar it waits until the ship has left British waters, thereby avoiding a major diplomatic spat.

All that tiptoeing around this thorny subject could be about to change. The Gibraltar Government, angry that Spain has somehow managed to get the European Commission to list Gibraltar waters as a Spanish environmental site, is going to court.

If the case actually goes ahead – it’ll take ages, and my gut feeling is they’ll find a way to resolve matters outside the courtroom – then this thorny issue of the status of Gibraltar waters could be cleared up once and for all.

Is it important? Yes. At one level, it’s about protecting Gibraltar’s sovereignty. At a more practical level, it’s about who is in charge of what happens in the waters off Gibraltar, from environmental protection to the management of shipping, including naval visits. That is something that Gibraltar must have control over.

Having said all that, the average punter is probably indifferent to this whole row and more concerned about the prospect of being stung by killer jellyfish!

P.S. The story about the jellyfish, incidentally, is accurate. A few weeks ago while walking along the beach in El Rinconcillo, opposite Gibraltar, I counted over 20 of these nasty things washed up on the sand. Careful swimming this summer…

Gibraltar’s child porn failure

Another interesting case in court a few days ago, one that doesn’t say much for Gibraltar I’m afraid.

A man is caught with horrendous images of children being sexually abused. People who have seen the images told me they were sickening. Even veterans said they had never seen anything like that before.

Well, at least they caught the guy and can do something about it, right? Well, not quite. In Gibraltar, there is no offence specific to internet child porn.

So what happened? The guy concerned was charged with publishing obscene images. The police could do this because they had forensic evidence showing that some images had been sent to another person over the internet. Plus he admitted it. Without this, there would have been little to charge him with.

‘Publishing obscene images’ is a rather old-fashioned offence that doesn’t quite reflect what is going on here. Maximum sentence? Three years.

This is a glaring vacuum in the law. It was highlighted over a year ago by the Gibraltar Government but the legislative gap has yet to be filled.

Someone should really move faster on this issue.

Lesbians to appeal in UK

As predicted, the lesbian housing case has moved on. Having been knocked back by both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal in Gibraltar, the couple now have permission to take the case to UK court. If that fails, they will no doubt carry on to the European courts.

It is right that they should pursue this as far as they can. Gibraltar’s housing policy, which does not allow joint tenancy for gay couples, is ridiculously old fashioned. It’s not just me who says this. One senior appeals judge went as far as saying it was illegal. So yes, this case should be fought, whatever the result.

But it is costing the taxpayer a huge amount of money. The couple are being funded publicly through the legal assistance scheme. The government has retained senior counsel too. Surely, someone somewhere could have come up with a better way of sorting this out without having to spend a small fortune.

One last point. Even though the couple lost the fundamental point about gay rights, the decision of the housing committee to refuse them joint tenancy was, at one point, referred back by the judge. It was clear he felt the committee should have a rethink. They did, and reached the same decision. No joint tenancy for the lesbian couple.